Re: CHAT: Subtitles (was: Re: Proto-Romance)

Date:    Thu, 25 Mar 2004 08:12:33 -0800
From:    David Zitzelsberger <DavidZ@...>
Subject: Re: CHAT: Subtitles (was: Re: Proto-Romance)

> From: Jake X [mailto:starvingpoet@PATMEDIA.NET]
> > Which reminds me of something that has always vexed me,
> > though it makes perfect sense:  the way languages start and stop
> > at the borders of a country.  It always seemed artificial and forced
> > to me.
>
> I would disagree. A national government supports schools and signs,
> of course the language will start and stop at the national border.
In a number of countries with federal governments (e.g., the US,
Canada, India, etc.) the federal government has little or no role
in the actual formulation of policy concerning education.  Besides
which, such policies can affect language distribution only over an
extremely long time, and with many concomitant socioeconomic facts
helping it along.

> But then, it doesn't. American SW English has terms like laredo,
> lariet, aligator (el lagarto). Mexican has picked up terms like laitor
> (lightor/er) instead of encendedor.
This is especially the case in border towns.  South Texas is famous
(or infamous) for its particular brand of Spanglish with hundreds of
borrowings from English in their Hispanicized forms e.g. _larche_
"large".

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637